Boats... to rent or buy?

Not here yet, but soon.
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Miss Buffalo said:
And solo vs. tandem IK? What are the biggest differences beside storage room?
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Storage room was the main difference to me. I went with the tandem so I would have room for gear on overnight trips, plus a second person for day trips. The tandem is just much more versatile than the solo to me...
 
steepandcheap has some killer deals on tributary and aire boats. I picked up two tributary sawtooths.
 
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I think we cleaned them out of the sawtooths, since they're not available anymore.

My wife and I are excited to get ours out on the water. We're going for an inaugural run on Friday night for date night.
 
@Tess and I decided to test our new tributary sawtooth boats tonight.

We headed over to the free public launch site just south of the Lindon harbor. These boats are a pain to haul because they're so heavy. We lugged them down the many stairs and set them up on the muddy mucky beach. Setup was pretty intuitive (except for the seat install), and we had them inflated in no time.

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We also wanted to test out Fender's reaction while on the water, to determine if he'll be joining us on any boating trips. The first 3 minutes were great.

Then he had a full-fledged panic attack. I don't know if it was being away from me or tess when he was on the other's boat, or if it was being so far from the shore. It's surprising because he loves to swim and he loves the water. He was shaking and trembling and whining uncontrolably. So we decided to cut our trip short and head back to the truck after 20 min on the water. At one point, he wanted off the boat so bad that he fell into the water and was a little disoriented. We called him over to the boat and pulled him in, but he was still nervous.

Well... now we know he's not a boating dog. :) That's ok though, because he loves just about every other outdoor activity. Anyone else had a dog that learned to love kayaks?


Anyway, here are a few pics from the trip:

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I have mixed feelings about the boats. We got them for a steal, so I can't complain about the price. They were pretty heavy to haul down to the shore. Setup isn't a pain, but I imagine unloading a hard-sided kayak would be way faster.

Once they were on the water they were great. I was really impressed with their speed, how well the tracked, and how well they turned when I wanted them to. They glide really well when you stop paddling. I felt like there wasn't a ton of room for gear for a 4-5 day trip, but if I can backpack for 4-5 days with a 55L pack, I should be fine with a couple dry bags strapped to the boat. I could see how it'd be easy to overload this boat and hurt its performance.

When we decided to head back, I was dreading the packing up the wet boat, then carrying a wet deflated pile up the stairs to the truck. Fortunately we had the good idea to carry them inflated, which was great. We could carry two boats at once, one of us holding the bow of each boat, and the other holding the stern. The grab handles are awesome. Then we placed it perpendicular to the truck bed, deflated them, and folded them in thirds and let them dry on the way home.

Once home, we hosed them off to get all the utah lake mud off them and unzipped the bladders to let all the extra water air out. That's kind of a pain to be honest, but in the long-run, we have boats that fit in the trunk of my miata and get us where we need to go.

So, I think a hard-sided kayak would rock, but they're twice the price we paid, and transporting them is a little harder. However, you don't have to clean and dry them like you do with these.

so, time for a little pro-con list.

Pros:
- easy and fast to set up
- fits in the trunk
- lots of awesome tie-down loops to strap things to
- quick, efficient paddlig (for an inflatable)
- built by a company who makes great inflatables (except this is built in China)
- the drains really did their job and didn't let any water in
- great grab handles to carry the kayaks
- very stable, and didn't feel too wide
- I stayed very dry
- storage pockets on the seat were a life-saver. I used the water bottle holder a lot, along with the zippered pockets for my dinner

Cons:
- heavy. I believe the boat weighs 42 lbs without the seat. That's a lot to carry from your car for 100-300 feet to the shoreline.
- bladder inside a pvc sleeve is a pain to dry out
- vinyl air cell vs the urethane air cells of the USA Aire boats


Basically, if these boats weighed 10-15lbs less and didn't have a bladder inside a pvc tube, I'd think they were the greatest thing ever. The sea eagle fast track supposedly ticks all those boxes, but who knows what their quality is like. Maybe I'll come to love the bladder in a bag system in the long-run. More testing to come.
 
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Well I hope you don't pull the plug on Fender's boating career just yet, give him few more chances to redeem himself. :)
 
The bladder inside the sleeve is a Pro for me....if you rip the boat on a rock you can just sew it up and keep going. It's an added level of protection. I have never unzipped mine to let it dry out and have had no issues.
 
Nanda said:
Well I hope you don't pull the plug on Fender's boating career just yet, give him few more chances to redeem himself. :)
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I've never seen him so panicked. I'd love to have him be able to tag along for future endeavors, but I don't know how to acclimate him. He's more comfortable rappelling than kayaking; that's saying something.
 
IntrepidXJ said:
The bladder inside the sleeve is a Pro for me....if you rip the boat on a rock you can just sew it up and keep going. It's an added level of protection. I have never unzipped mine to let it dry out and have had no issues.
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Good feedback Randy, thanks. I can see how that would be an advantage, though it'd be pretty tough to rip the outer pvc, this thing is beefy.
 
those are the single-seaters. Technically you can add a second seat to them, but they're the smaller of the two sawtooth models.
 
oops, I was mistaken. It's 42 lbs per boat, not 49 lbs. It just feels like 49 lbs. :)
 
yeah, this one is meant for speed on calm rivers and lakes, so it's longer than their river duckies.
 
IntrepidXJ said:
The bladder inside the sleeve is a Pro for me....if you rip the boat on a rock you can just sew it up and keep going. It's an added level of protection. I have never unzipped mine to let it dry out and have had no issues.
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x2 and I also have never unzipped the ones I've used to air out.....
 
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